Coaching practices for How Stories Shape Identity
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For How Stories Shape Identity, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- There’s a story I tell about my past
- I’ve spotted a few moments where I was braver than my usual story says, but they feel like isolated flukes
- The new way I’m trying to see myself only seems to hold when I’m alone with it
- I can recount exactly what happened
- I say "I’m someone who never quits," but my history is full of things I walked away from, and that gap between who I claim to be and what I’ve actually done sits in me as a low hum of unease I can’t quite name.
Practices that may help
- Narrative Identity, Made Practical
Dan McAdams’ narrative identity theory holds that identity itself is a personal myth — an internalized, evolving story that integrates your past, present, and imagined future into a coherent sense of self. The structure and tone of that story (whether it moves toward redemption or contamination, agency or communion) predicts psychological well-being, and the story can be deliberately revised. Evidence is primarily observational but robustly consistent. - Revise your life narrative when it limits you
Identify and reauthor the story you tell about your past that constrains what you believe is possible.
The Life Crafting Intervention: Scripting Your Future Self - Re-Authoring the Alternative Story
Build a preferred story of identity by thickening the exceptions into a narrative with a plot.
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Definitional Ceremonies and Outsider Witnesses
Invite meaningful others to witness and retell the new story — being known differently by others consolidates the new identity.
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Landscape of Identity and Action Questions
Use two question types to map both what the person DID (action) and what that reveals about who they ARE (identity).
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Test your story for coherence and credibility
Identify the parts of your self-narrative that are contradictory or no longer true.
Narrative Identity, Made Practical - Balance agency and communion themes in your story
Check whether your life narrative is weighted toward self-expansion (agency) or connection (communion).
Narrative Identity, Made Practical - Own your story — including the difficult parts
Shame loses power when you claim your own narrative rather than letting it define you from the outside.
Shame Resilience, Made Practical - Write a brief narrative of your season to make it coherent
People who can tell a coherent story about their life stage navigate it more effectively than those who cannot.
Seasons of Life - View your life as a narrative, not a sequence of choices
Ask: what story am I living, and does it reflect the character I am trying to build?
Virtue Ethics, Made Practical
Related concerns
- Narrative Identity On A Budget
Dan McAdams’ narrative identity theory holds that identity itself is a personal myth — an internalized, evolving story that integrates your past, present, and imagined future into a coherent sense of self. The structure and tone of that story (whether it moves toward redemption or contamination, agency or communion) predicts psychological well-being, and the story can be deliberately revised. Evidence is primarily observational but robustly consistent.
- How Founder Storytelling Shapes Identity
Identify and reauthor the story you tell about your past that constrains what you believe is possible.
Revise your life narrative when it limits you
- Narrative Identity As A Caregiver
Dan McAdams’ narrative identity theory holds that identity itself is a personal myth — an internalized, evolving story that integrates your past, present, and imagined future into a coherent sense of self. The structure and tone of that story (whether it moves toward redemption or contamination, agency or communion) predicts psychological well-being, and the story can be deliberately revised. Evidence is primarily observational but robustly consistent.
- Narrative Identity At Work
Dan McAdams’ narrative identity theory holds that identity itself is a personal myth — an internalized, evolving story that integrates your past, present, and imagined future into a coherent sense of self. The structure and tone of that story (whether it moves toward redemption or contamination, agency or communion) predicts psychological well-being, and the story can be deliberately revised. Evidence is primarily observational but robustly consistent.
- Narrative Identity For My Teenager
Dan McAdams’ narrative identity theory holds that identity itself is a personal myth — an internalized, evolving story that integrates your past, present, and imagined future into a coherent sense of self. The structure and tone of that story (whether it moves toward redemption or contamination, agency or communion) predicts psychological well-being, and the story can be deliberately revised. Evidence is primarily observational but robustly consistent.
- Narrative Identity Purpose
Dan McAdams’ narrative identity theory holds that identity itself is a personal myth — an internalized, evolving story that integrates your past, present, and imagined future into a coherent sense of self. The structure and tone of that story (whether it moves toward redemption or contamination, agency or communion) predicts psychological well-being, and the story can be deliberately revised. Evidence is primarily observational but robustly consistent.
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